Metroid Fusion A Novelization
by Byrning flame
Summary: The adventure aboard BSL Space Labs, in Samus' own words.
1. Introduction

Introduction: SR388, and the Huntress 

The sky was a dirty grey colour, with the ground a uniformly dead brown. As far as the eye could see, there was no major life on the surface, save for a few scraggly trees that looked half-dead anyway. For earth, this would be cause for major concern, a regression back to the pollution that plagued humanity nearly a thousand years before.

This planet was not earth. This planet, to be honest, didn't have a name. On star charts, it was designated 'SR388'. And it was also quite quarantined. No one could set foot on the surface without express permission from the Galactic Federation. So, ugly as it was, the landscape was a sight that few ever got to see.

And yet, one of the people seeing it right now would be happier to never see it again.

Years ago, scientists landed on the newly-discovered planet to collect life form samples. All went well for the first few days, with no real breakthroughs, just creatures that would only be vaguely interesting to anyone who wasn't a xenobiologist. Amongst other things, it was discovered that there was once a substantial city there established by an ancient civilization that had not been sighted for thousands upon thousands of years. And then the scientists found _them_. They looked, basically, like jellyfish. Flying jellyfish with visible brain nodes, yes, but 'like a jellyfish' was the most apt description. To put it lightly, the scientists were unable to take one as a sample. To put it in greater detail, the man who first stumbled across one attempted to capture it, and it suddenly lunged at him. Unlike a jellyfish, the bottom of the creature didn't have many soft tentacles; it had two sharp, piercing spines. It injected these into the man's back, clung to him using some hooks that bordered the spines… and drained his life energy. Not his blood, not his muscles. It's never been quite clear what, exactly, they do to a victim when they kill it. What is known is that the poor sap's life was drained away, and his body collapsed into a cloud of dust when it released him. However the food chain on SR388 is arranged, these things are definitely at the top.

A few scientists managed to escape, and report their findings to the Federation. A band of the monstrous, murderous, and dangerously intelligent beings known as Space Pirates intercepted the broadcast, and realized that the creatures, which were, according to a translated hieroglyph on one wall in the city, known as 'Metroids', could be the most powerful weapon any force had ever known. The pirates landed on SR388, somehow managed to capture some Metroids, and brought them back to their base of operations, the planet Zebes. The Federation was not exactly thrilled with this turn of events, so they hired the best bounty hunter in the quadrant to exterminate the base and destroy the Metroids. They hired Samus Aran.

Samus Aran had very few happy years. She lived in a space colony designated 2KL for the first six years of her life, until disaster struck. The Space Pirates, led by the monstrous Ridley, chose 2KL for their next target. They butchered the inhabitants, stole everything that was valuable, and destroyed most of what wasn't. But, somehow, they missed one survivor. They missed six-year-old Samus Aran, who was hiding in a small cabinet, crying and trying desperately to remain utterly silent. That, and trying (and failing) to remove the images of destruction and death from her mind. When the Federation's soldiers finally showed up, there was nothing left. What they didn't know was that members of the incredibly ancient race no one had ever seen, the Chozo, had arrived before them, and retrieved the little girl. They brought her up on the planet Zebes, where one of their cities was left. They raised her as one of their own, yet while the Chozo were well known (to those who knew of them at all) as pacifists, they raised Samus to be a mighty warrior. To help her in her journeys, they instilled in Samus some of their own blood, making her stronger, faster, and generally more physically fit than the average human. They also gave her a special Power Suit that increased her attributes further, and allowed her to withstand damage that no human armour could have survived. It was about six and a half feet tall, with a red helmet and green visor. The inside of the visor gave Samus a constant view of her vital stats: the integrity of the suit's armour, the amount of missiles she had left, and a small map in an upper corner that could be expanded for a view of the entire locale. The body and legs of the suit were yellow metal, with a green sphere in the back of the left hand that could light up the area. With the Varia suit upgrade, the body changed to orange, with large 'shoulder pads' and sharp spikes projecting above the shins. Finally, the Gravity suit upgrade would make the legs and arms purple, while unchanging the colours of the chest. The right hand of the power suit was a variable cannon that could fire either a variety of energy beams, or a limited supply of missiles. The suit itself was modular, in that if Samus could locate various Chozo-made upgrades, she could make the suit more versatile. For instance, the Varia suit upgrade made the suit resistant to extreme heat. The wave beam upgrade made the gun strong enough to shoot through solid objects. And the high-jump boots improved Samus' already considerable jumping skills with a pneumatic push-off.

Eventually, Samus was a powerful force to be reckoned with. And an unusual one. For someone who was so severely traumatized, at such a young age, she was surprisingly unlike the other bounty hunters. She would, for instance, never take any job that required her to kill children. She would never take a job without first doing extensive research on the target. If she didn't feel the target deserved death, she wouldn't do it. Finally, if the job focused on killing Space Pirates, then no matter how low the pay, no matter how high the risk, she would take it, virtually no questions asked. The Chozo had done a good job of healing her damaged mind, but no one could ever expect anyone who had gone through _that_ to ever be fully healed.

I won't bother to go into detail with her exploits on Zebes. They are, after all, legend. She successfully completed the mission: Destroy the Mother Brain, eliminate her lieutenants Kraid and Ridley, (against whom Samus had a personal vendetta) and stop the Metroid operation on Zebes.

A relatively unknown escapade involving a powerful mutagenic called Phazon, some genetically-altered Metroids and a recently revived Ridley followed on the planet Tallon IV, which Samus came out of on top, more powerful than ever.

Samus had decided, after this, that the Metroids were simply too powerful to continue to survive. They had to be eliminated. After proposing her idea to the Galactic Federation, they allowed her to single-handedly go to SR388 to combat the Metroids on their home planet. And in this, too, she succeeded where all others had failed. She destroyed every Metroid on SR388, in all their states of growth, (Metroids grow bigger and more powerful when exposed to Gamma radiation.) including the truly monstrous Metroid Queen. All of them - except one. Just before Samus left the planet, the last remaining Metroid egg hatched before her eyes. Her initial reaction was to destroy it… but it didn't even try to harm her. As the first being it encountered after being hatched, Samus had become its 'mother'. Samus couldn't bring herself to kill it, even knowing what it might someday become.

She brought the last Metroid back to the Galactic Federation, and left it in the care of Ceres Lab, a scientific research station. Unfortunately, Samus hadn't even left the solar system the lab was located in, before she got a distress call. She returned to Ceres, only to find the entire crew dead, and to encounter Ridley, the perpetual thorn in her side, stealing the last Metroid.

Samus followed him to Zebes, where the Space Pirates had secretly been rebuilding their base. Although she succeeded in killing Ridley and Kraid once more, during the titanic battle with the reconstructed Mother Brain, the last Metroid gave its life to protect its 'mother'. The Mother Brain killed the Metroid, and an enraged Samus fought harder than she had ever fought before. Something in her had changed. She had fought before for vengeance, but now she was almost bloodthirsty. She escaped Zebes before a massive self-destruct device vaporized the entire planet, but at least the Pirates would never again be able to use the Metroids as a weapon. Which brings us to the present day.


	2. First Contact

Chapter One: First Contact 

Sarah Aran held her beloved daughter tight to her chest, running through the large house that had once belonged to a good friend of the family. Amongst many other innocents, the owner of the house was now dead, crushed by the leader's massive tail. She'd heard tales of the Space Pirates, fragmented though the information was, but she'd never heard of anything even remotely like that… that _monster_ that led them. Twenty feet tall, with a tail almost as long, and with a wingspan so wide it could carry its massive bulk through the air, it looked like a mindless beast… but Sarah had looked directly into it's eyes after it had killed her husband, and seen an intelligence that frightened her. It truly was a monster if it was as smart as she feared. Samus cried out "Mommy, I'm scared!" Sarah ran her hands through her daughter's hair and tried to soothe her, though it was futile, since she herself had never been more terrified. She could her the noises those creatures made getting louder, could still hear the screaming. Sarah was thanking whatever deity might be listening, however, that Samus had not witnessed the way her father had died. He'd grabbed the emergency pistol, but it was futile. Fully charged, it could only stun the pirates, and it was utterly useless against that winged monstrosity. Sarah herself knew that even if she survived the night, she would wake up screaming for years afterward from what she had seen. She had no idea why they had attacked, but she knew they didn't take prisoners. She finally found herself at a dead end. The bedroom. There was a gaping hole in the wall, and a busted steam pipe next to a large wardrobe. That gave her an idea. If they were using thermal imaging, (Considering what she'd heard of previous colony massacres, it seemed likely that they did, so as to avoid leaving survivors.) a human heat signature could be masked by the steam pipe. But a large signature could still give them away. She knew what she had to do to ensure her daughter's survival.

"Samus, climb in here." Thank the stars her daughter did as she was told. "Samus, I'm going to find another place to hide, so don't worry about me. But I need you to promise me something. Promise me that you won't – you won't make a sound. Promise me that you won't leave this closet. You must hide here until you hear human voices, okay? Until you hear the soldiers that are on their way, you must hide here from the monsters!" Samus' eyes were full of tears, but she nodded. "O-okay. I love you, mommy." Sarah, trying hard herself not to cry, gave her daughter a big hug. "I love you too, Samus." She reached into her pocket, and pulled out a necklace. "Samus, keep this with you. It will make you safe. I promise. Now, remember to stay quiet!" She smiled, the most forced smile she had ever done, and closed the door. She turned to the hole in the wall, took a deep breath, and ran out into the street, running as far as she could, looking for something. There. The monster. The leader. She picked up a broken piece of brick and threw it at him. It turned, surprisingly fast. "Hey, you big freak! Come get me!" It leaned back its head and roared, a sound that chilled her heart. Then, almost faster than her eyes could follow, it took flight, and soared towards her, mouth open, full of razor-sharp teeth…

Sarah Aran gave her daughter a second gift then. She didn't make a sound as she died. Samus never had to hear her mother's screams.

Samus was terrified. Mommy had told her that there were no such things as monsters, but now they were here. She didn't know how long she'd been here, she couldn't quite tell time yet even if she could find a watch. She had clamped her hands over her mouth to keep from crying. Several times she had heard the monsters outside the closet, making awful noises. Was that how they talked? She was so scared. She hadn't heard anything at all, though, for the last while. All she could hear was the steam coming out of the pipe. Finally she thought she heard something, but, while it wasn't the noise the monsters had made, it definitely wasn't human speech. Then… she did hear it. "It's all right, child. You can come out. They're gone." Slowly, she opened the door. And while the creature standing there wasn't human, she couldn't imagine it hurting her. It looked sort of like a bird, but she'd never seen a bird as tall as Daddy. It reached out for her with a three-fingered hand, and finally crying, she ran into its arms. And then there was a strange buzzing sound…

Samus blinked a few times. For a few seconds, she was still confused. What happened to the creature? Where was Mommy? Then she remembered. She was lying in her bunk on her ship. The only place she felt truly at home anymore. It had been many years since she'd last actually _seen_ a Chozo, and her mother had been dead far longer than that. She sat up, sighing. She'd been having the dream more and more often recently. The parts where her mother died were embellished, fabricated by her imagination, but she did know that Ridley had been the one who ended Sarah Aran's life. That sort of detail wasn't exactly common knowledge, but Samus had ways of making computers divulge information she needed. The being that had been most responsible for ruining Samus' life, the winged terror known as Ridley, had been her constant nemesis. He somehow found a way to be where she had to go. The fact that she had killed him three times didn't stop the pain any. Her heart had nearly stopped the first time she had seen him alive again, resurrected, on that freighter in orbit around Tallon IV. But that had been a long time ago, and she actually went into missions expecting to find Ridley along the way.

The buzzing wasn't ordered. She would often set the computer to wake her when the ship reached its destination, or if she simply wanted to be awake at a certain time. This one wasn't planned, so it meant one two things. Either the ship was under attack, which seemed unlikely, considering the attack alarm was more of a klaxon, or someone was trying to contact her. She walked up to her command seat, and pushed a few buttons. Galactic Federation Headquarters. "Damnit." If it had been any of her other customers, she'd merely have sent the automatic "Time not convenient" response. It never failed to piss off the sender, but at least she'd get some shut-eye. And that was one thing she needed. She had just gotten back from a particularly rough job. Not exactly as harrowing as the Zebes job, but then, jobs which require you to escape a planet before it explodes aren't exactly common. No, this was from Federation HQ. That meant it was a biggie. If she didn't answer, or if she send the inconvenient reply, they'd come up with some law she'd broken and offer to drop the charges if she did this job. She shook her head and pushed the receiver button. At least this way she could make some money.

A man appeared on screen, with a tired grin and a somewhat dopey look in his eyes, which was of course on purpose, to get people to underestimate him. "Ahh, Ms. Aran. A pleasure, as always." It was a senator, the one with the annoyingly nasal voice, the one who's name she could never remember. "I sincerely doubt that, senator. Why did you call me? I'm not exactly the sort who likes to chat." The smile dropped from his face. "Cutting right to the chase, as usual. Fine. I'll put it briefly. We've got a job for you to do." Samus just looked at him. "I kind of figured that. I need details, senator." The man rolled his eyes. "Samus, I know you're not exactly the type to use titles, so I'm going to guess that, once again, you've forgotten my name. What do I have to do, write 'Billings' on my forehead every time we have a job?" Samus just crossed her arms and said nothing. Billings shrugged. "Fine. We have a research team going to be collecting samples on an ecosystem we know very little about. We need someone-" Samus cut him off. "To escort the scientists? Billings, I'm not a babysitter. Get your soldiers to do it." Billings' smile returned. "Ah, but my dear Samus, we want you in particular. You see, no one knows more about this specific ecosystem than you." Samus frowned for a second then froze as realization hit. "SR388." Billings once again looked like the Cheshire cat. "Exactly."

It was now two weeks later, and Samus found herself standing in almost exactly the same place she had years earlier when she had come to the planet to wipe out the Metroids. The biggest differences were two in number. First, she was fully equipped this time. Missiles, both regular and super, bombs, power bombs, both the varia and gravity suits, and a fully upgraded beam, with the wave, spazer, ice, plasma, and charge attachments. She was a walking arsenal. She waited where she was, doing routine system maintenance on her power suit, and watched the scientist's landing craft touch down not far from her own, a small gunship that actually bore somewhat of a resemblance to the helmet of Samus' power suit. The letters "B.S.L." were stencilled into the sides. This was a contracted work from a small part of the Federation, the Biologic research division. It amused her when the people who exited the craft were wearing battle suits somewhat similar to her own. Looks like after the Metroid fiasco, they weren't taking any chances. Of course, the technology of her suit was hundreds, if not thousands of years more advanced than that of the scientist's. The Chozo were once the most powerful force in the galaxy, and yet they never used their technology to conquer. As the group made their way towards her, Samus pushed all thought of the Chozo from her mind. She had a job to do.

It had all been pretty routine so far. Routine, and mind-numbingly dull. She had pretty much tuned out the scientist's chatter, having come to the conclusion that she had no idea what they were talking about with all the references to textbooks that were probably thicker than her arms, or specific details about the geologic samples. So far, her job had been easy. The only time she'd had to fire was when one of the scientists had wandered too close to a hidden gawron nest, and the flying nuisances started trying to kill her. Now she led them down a tunnel, which she knew, thanks to her old maps, led to a dead end. The only thing in the room, sitting on a large rock, was a small, frog-like critter she knew to be called a hornoad. She'd killed dozens of them before, it wasn't exactly like they were her greatest enemy. Truth be told, she tended to ignore them after a while. But this one leapt straight for the scientists, so Samus was forced to blow it away. It jumped over her first missile, which, while unusual, was not impossible. The missile's light explosive charge sent bits of stone flying in all directions, but it wasn't powerful enough to really damage the wall. The hornoad ducked under her second shot, which was disconcerting. But she plastered it all over the wall with her third. If she had been in a more focused state of mind, she might have noticed that its remains were all one colour, and remained in a single lump. But in the microseconds it took for her to glance at her missile readout, the lump had fallen off the wall, and landed on her. This was hardly new, when it's your job to kill various creatures, a little splatter is inevitable. But the blood and gore usually doesn't seek out the cracks in your armour and seep into them. Samus clawed at her armour, but it was over so quickly she thought she must have imagined it. There was no trace of the former hornoad on her chestplate at all. A little shaken, she turned around and told the lead scientist it would be a good idea to call it a day.

A few hours later, Samus was escorting the BSL ship back to the space station they had set up in the sector, and things were going smoothly. Until something odd happened. As Samus watched the screen on her ship, the lines designating various spatial routes and objects of note began blurring. The bounty hunter frowned. She kept her ship operating at 110 efficiency. The computer had never malfunctioned before, so even a small thing like a flawed image was something to worry about. She meant to reach over and knock on the side of the unit a few times, see if it was just a misaligned circuit, but her arm just flopped over and dropped, like it weighed a ton. Now, Samus realized, everything she could see was blurry, and she began to feel light-headed. The problem wasn't with the computer, it was with _her_. She reached over for the communications panel, but her hand dropped again, hitting one of the manoeuvring controls on its way down to her side. Samus' head tilted back as the galaxy's most famous bounty hunter lost consciousness. Following the manoeuvring order it had received, the gunship began listing to starboard. Not that anyone was able to see it, but the screen changed to a view of an asteroid field, with a small representation of Samus' gunship heading for it. "Warning." The computer's mellow voice stated. "Current trajectory results in collision course with object number 622-C. Please adjust trajectory." The little gunship on the screen kept going closer and closer to the asteroid belt, one of the space rocks in particular flashing, next to an expanded view showing a live feed of the asteroid in question. A timer in the corner of the screen was counting down both the time remaining to adjust the course, and the rapidly shrinking distance between the gunship and the hard, unforgiving rock.

The ship's timing system was accurate to the millisecond. True to its word, exactly as the timer reached 00:00:00, Samus Aran's famous gunship ploughed into the surface of the asteroid, exploded, and was utterly destroyed.


	3. Critical Condition

Chapter Two: Critical Condition 

The reactions on the bridge of the BSL ship varied. First the captain had his communications officer inform Samus that she was drifting from the designated course. He had no reaction to this, as it was such a minor thing. Then, with no response, and realizing what was about to happen, he sent a message to inform her that she was heading into an asteroid field. Then, as Samus' ship had exploded, there was silence and shocked looks. The captain shook it off and ordered one of his officers to scan for signs of life. And, surprisingly, they found one. Seems Samus had planned for this sort of thing, and that just before the ship crashed, when the computer had calculated that it was too late to do anything, the ship closed an auto-escape pod around the command chair and ejected Samus. She would be perfectly fine, minus the cost of her customized star ship, as soon as she came to.

Or _if_ she came to. When the BSL ship brought her on board, she was still unconscious. The Onboard Medic Simulation quickly deduced her problem. She was infested. That hornoad she'd killed on SR388 wasn't really a hornoad. It was a life-form that no one had ever come in contact with before. A gelatinous parasite that lived to destroy. What it would do is infest a creature by absorbing itself into the bloodstream of a targeted victim. There, it would multiply at a molecular level, until the parasite's cells were all over the body's major functions. The victim wouldn't even realize that anything was wrong until their central nervous system was overrun with the parasites, at which point they would rather quickly lose consciousness and fall into a coma. When the body was totally infested, the parasites would work to kill the host, as well as taking DNA samples from the various cells they infested. When the host would die, the parasites would leave the body, once again taking the shape of a gelatinous blob. From this point on, however, that particular gelatinous blob would have the ability to mimic the DNA of the former host, allowing it to reshape into a perfect copy of the creature. The copy could then use any and all natural abilities the original host had access to. So far, it seemed that there was no creature that could withstand the parasites, and all who were infested inevitably died.

And now Samus Aran fell into that category as well. The OMS declared that the hunter had a 0.873 prognosis for survival, and her body was sent to Galactic Federation HQ for extreme emergency medical treatment.

Unfortunately, there was an unforeseen problem. Part of the reason Aran worked so well with her Power Suit was that it had organic components as well as mechanical. It was literally connected to her body once she put it on. It was integrally joined to the bounty hunter, so that the surgeons were totally unable to remove her suit while she was unconscious. In fact, the parasite had travelled through Samus and infected certain parts of her suit. While this unconscious lockdown was a good feature to have if Samus was knocked out by a Space Pirate, it was _not_ a positive thing when the suit needed to be removed to save her life. The medical teams were forced to surgically remove parts of Samus' suit in order to keep her alive a little bit longer.

The senator stood inside the operating theatre, looking down at the table. It seemed ludicrous to see a patient on the table _wearing heavy armour._ He glanced to the side of the room to see an interesting sight: floating in a containment tank, suspended by a thick liquid, were the removed parts of Aran's armour. The surgeons had removed the outer layer of armour completely, making it look like Samus Aran floated motionless in the tube, and someone completely different, owing to the look of her reduced armour, was lying prone on the table. Without taking his eyes off the sight, Billings softly said "Johnston." Within two seconds, his aide was standing next to him. "Yes sir?" Billings now glanced over at him. "Have the infected suit parts shipped back to the BSL station, for a thorough examination. Even if we can't stop this… this _thing, _well, just imagine what we could do if we could find a way to make more armour like that Power Suit. An army of Samus Arans, all following my-" He blinked. "…_our_ every order. Oh, and Johnston? After the bounty hunter dies, cut her out of what's left of her suit and have that examined, too." Johnston nodded, hiding a look of disgust, and spoke into the headset he wore. After a bit, he turned back to Billings. "Sir, I've received confirmation that BSL is sending a courier ship this way to pick her suit up. It should be arriving in a few hours." Billings nodded slightly. "Good. That will be all, Johnston." Johnston left, once again promising himself he would get a job for someone who didn't make him sick. Meanwhile, a single scientist below was conducting a simulation on a medical computer. A simulation that ended the way he hoped it would. He slowly smiled and nodded.


	4. Resurrection

Chapter Three: Resurrection 

"I'm telling you, it will work!" this from one white-suited scientist among many. Their leader, the chief medical officer of the station, one Akima Sen, walked rapidly towards them. "What will work?" The lizard-like man (he hated the term 'alien', but had learned to put up with it when working with humans) slowly blinked and stared at the one who had spoken, a doctor whose name escaped him. "Ah, Dr. Sen. Look at this." He tapped a few buttons on the nearest console, and a large image appeared, a sample from Samus that was infested with "X parasites", as the doctors had started calling them. "The interesting thing about the X cells is that apart from a very, _very _basic genetic code, one that can be restructured, they're basically pure energy held in a plasma state." Sen did something with his mouth, a facial expression common to his species, something that came very close to being categorized as a frown. "Yes, I know that. I _discovered _that. So what?" He brought up a second image, a simulation screen showing the same thing. "So I've found a kind of antidote. Another kind of cell that seems tailor made for this." As he tapped a button, small blue cells entered the bloodstream from the right of the image, and swarmed towards the large yellow blobs. A number of blue cells were absorbed into the blobs, the same way the red blood cells were being killed, but the large yellow blobs – the X – would shiver, and collapse in on themselves, soon becoming nothing more than harmless gelatin that would make its way to the stomach and dissolve, leaving the blue cells perfectly healthy. Then the mysterious blue cells left the screen, which was now totally devoid of X. Sen nodded and did something that was _almost_ an impressed smile. "Amazing! What _is_ this antidote? I'm guessing it's unconventional, or we'd have already found it." The scientist looked somewhat embarrassed. "It's… definitely unconventional, sir. Those blue cells… are Metroid DNA."

"You see, senator, it seems that Metroids were perfectly designed to absorb energy." Several days after the doctor's discovery, Sen stood in Billing's office, trying to get the man to see things his way. "Not only could they remove life energy from anything unfortunate enough for them to catch, but their very cells could store energy from victims, making the entire Metroid's body one large battery. Since the X are almost pure energy, they are the ideal prey for Metroids. Since we've never encountered them before, I'll have to assume they're a recent mutation. Too bad. It would have been interesting to see the two species interact." Billings shook his head. "Doctor, this is all fascinating, but what the hell good does it do us? Remember, our patient made the species in question extinct a while ago. Personally, I find the irony almost _funny._" Sen nodded. "I expected that, sir. We were unable to recover much from Ceres station after Ridley destroyed it, but we did find one thing of important note: A cellular sample from the last Metroid." Billings' eyebrows rose, though in reality he, too, had been expecting this… just for a different reason.

"Senator Billings, give the word, and we'll inject Samus Aran with enough Metroid DNA to satisfy the simulator's requirements. Keep in mind, that while it _is _your decision, it being a new treatment, in my medical opinion, if we don't do this, she will die."

The senator frowned, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Very well. As much as I would to let her die, she's much more useful to me alive. And we don't have to let her know what we're doing with her armour. No, make sure she doesn't find out about that at all." Billings smiled, and though Sen wasn't totally fluent with human facial expressions, he knew enough to be unnerved by the senator's grin.

Samus swung the short staff around and around, switching it from hand to hand, tossing it around her body almost randomly, lashing out in front of her, striking the training dummy each time. She heard someone walk into the room behind her, and spun round, leaving the end of the branch mere inches from the intruder's face. It was the Chozo Elder, the very one who had saved her from the ruins of 2KL six years ago. He seemed unsurprised at her feigned attack, though she had tried not to let her movements betray what she was about to do.

"Hello, little one." As always, the Elder's voice carried a strong inhuman accent in its english words. "I see you've been training with the stave again. You are quite good at it." Samus smiled. "Thanks. I've been trying extra hard, ever since Reedoran beat me in the competition last month. Had it been last month? It seemed so long ago… She shook off the déjà vu and frowned. "Wise one, why am I training with physical weapons? I've been told that the Power Suit of the Warrior uses an energy laser like the humans' rifles do." The Elder put a hand, three fingers and a thumb, on her shoulder. "First of all, small one, always remember, _you_ are human. They may be a young race, and we may seem superior to you, but you should be as proud of your human blood as you are of your Chozo upbringing. Second, the mind is a powerful tool. Training with melee weapons hones your hand-to-eye coordination, and your agility. Finally, the Warrior's suit doesn't use lasers, it uses beam weaponry." He made the facial expression Samus had quickly come to associate with happiness. It was what a smile looked like when performed with a beak. "And besides. You are only twelve. How can we be sure you are really the next Warrior? Hmm? The day you turn 18, we will make you strong, and put you through the Warrior's test. But until then, you must focus on your –" Samus interrupted him. "Studies… Elder, we've had this conversation before, haven't we?" The old Chozo 'smiled' and nodded. "Yes, child, more than a decade ago. You haven't been twelve for a very long time. And If I remember correctly, you haven't picked up a stave in almost two years."

As her memories slowly started coming back, Samus wasn't totally surprised. Though she hadn't actually seen him or heard his voice since the day she left her home on Zebes, every once in a while, the Chozo Elder would visit her in her dreams, telepathically. She wasn't even sure he was still alive anymore. She had seen physical proof that Chozo really could move on to another stage of life, which wasn't quite death. Just… different.

Something this time, however, felt wrong. She looked down at herself. She was short, stocky, and built like a young boy. That's what it was! "Elder, why am I twelve?" The Elder looked at her in that strange way that indicated he knew all about her. "Because this is an important memory for you, the day when you finally admitted that being human wasn't a handicap." Samus blinked. "For the record, Reminding me to get back on my studies is a really shallow reason for contacting me. I assume there's something more important here?"

"Yes, hatchling. Samus, you are in a coma."

Samus dropped the stave, heard it clatter to the hard stone floor. "A coma! Why, what happened? I don't… remember…" The Elder shook his head. "That does not matter. What does matter is this. Very soon, you will have to face your greatest challenge ever. It will tax you more than this endless feud with Ridley, and require you to operate at 100 of your 'efficiency'. Promise me you will do your best, Samus. Promise me."

Samus was worried. The Elder, probably beyond the physical reality by this point, never seemed this… afraid. If it bothered him that much, it probably would be her greatest challenge. But she was Samus Aran, the Chozo Warrior, and she would not let anything bring her down. "Elder, I promise I will not fail, no matter what the danger is." The Elder smiled a little. "Thank you, hatchling. I must go now. Until we meet again, in this world, or the next."

Then things started to turn dark, the training chamber, the staff on the ground, the Elder himself, even Samus' twelve-year-old body. Soon everything was dark – but not for long. Samus felt herself lying on a table, and felt that she was in her armour. But something was wrong. It wasn't weighted right. And she didn't hear the telltale hums and whirrs that told her that the armour's personal systems were running. She slowly opened her eyes – to see someone bending over her! She grabbed upwards, heard a grunt of pain –

and came to, to see a hospital operating table, a doctor in extreme pain with his hand caught in the iron grip of… what was _left_ of her left hand's gauntlet. They had _gutted_ her armour! It didn't look right at all! Wires poked out everywhere, whole sections of plating were gone, and her HUD was missing. There was no way it would be able to operate in vacuum, and she wasn't sure her arm cannon would fire, though she seriously doubted that the doctors and such would enjoy watching her test it out. As another doctor got on the comm. line to tell whoever was on the other end that Samus was conscious, she shook her head in disbelief. "Someone's gonna pay for this. And I have a _lot _of work to do to repair it."


End file.
